A conventional connector apparatus for an IC pack or memory card includes a generally U-shaped connector assembly having guide grooves inside a pair of side portions, with a connector section joining or extending between the side portions. A planar IC pack is inserted into the apparatus between the side portions. A transverse array of socket terminals at an edge of the IC pack electrically interconnect with an associated array of pin terminals on the connector section.
Such connector apparatus often are provided as header connectors used for interconnecting the semi-conductor circuit of the IC pack to an external circuit such as a main electronic unit. The header connector may be used with an IC pack or memory card for removably coupling the IC pack to a printed circuit board. The IC pack is inserted into the header connector and is extracted therefrom as needed. The extraction force of the IC pack, i.e. the force between the respective terminal pins on the header connector and the respective socket terminals of the IC pack, is relatively high due to the tight fit required to obtain a good electrical interconnection between the terminals. These terminals typically are disposed at a high density which further increases the extraction forces. Often, when an IC pack is to be extracted from a header connector, the card is grasped by a user and simply pulled out. Consequently, a variety of ejecting mechanisms have been incorporated in various connector apparatus, such as the header connectors, for facilitating ejecting an IC pack from a header connector.
One of the problems with IC pack connector apparatus of the character described above, particularly in header connectors employed with printed circuit boards, is that the insertion or extraction of the IC packs with respect to the connectors can interfere with ongoing processes or interrupt data transfer, for example, between the ic pack and the main electronic unit. This invention is directed to solving such problems by providing a switch means in the connector apparatus, the switch means being actuated in response to the movement, i.e. the insertion or extraction of an IC pack with respect to the apparatus. Therefore, the switch means can be used to shut down various processing through the apparatus during insertion or extraction of the IC pack into or from the header connector. The switch means may be incorporated in the ejecting mechanism so that major modifications to standard IC packs and the interfacing of the packs with the connector apparatus do not have to be made.